"Sirius Black! I swear to Merlin, you do that one more time, I'll shove that wand of yours so far up your a-a-achoo! That's it Black! You're a dead man!"

Chloe jumped off her seat in the compartment of the Hogwarts Express and landed on Sirius. He had been shooting some sort of powder at Chloe with his wand. Every time the powder drifted by Chloe, she would sneeze. To all that were watching, the sight of Chloe sitting on Sirius, beating the snot out of him, was funny. It didn't seem to help with the crampness of the compartment though. On one side of the compartment sat Remus, Julia, Peter, and formerly Chloe. On the other were Rachel, Lily, James, and Sirius who now had Chloe on top of him. After Chloe had taken out every bit of frustration on Sirius, she returned to her seat. Sirius sat nursing his dead arm.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Julia as she looked over from Remus to Sirius and James.

"Whatever do you mean Julia?" said Sirius as innocently as he could.

"I mean, you came straight from the platform to this compartment and you haven't left since," said Julia as she stood up and walked over to Sirius. She placed a hand on Sirius' forehead. "Well, you are a little warm."

"You mean hot," said Sirius as he puffed out his chest and tossed back his head. James joined in by licking his finger and touching Sirius on the chest.

"Tssssss," hissed James through his teeth. "Oh yeah Sirius. You are one hot momma!"

"Yes, they're definitely normal," said Lily as she elbowed James in the ribs.

"I think what Julia was trying to say," began Rachel, "is that you four haven't pulled anything the whole train ride. No red and gold unexplodable bubbles filling up a Slytherin's compartment. Snape's hair is still black-."

"And greasy," added Sirius.

"Yes, and greasy," continued Rachel. "Have you all run out of pranking ideas or something?"

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter simply looked at each other and shrugged.

"You'll just have to wait and see," said Sirius as he reclined in his seat and folded his arms behind his head.

"This can't be good," whispered Rachel into Lily's ear. Lily laughed.

"What are you laughing about?" asked Sirius as he leaned forward and looked past James. "Nothing has happened yet."

"Oh, so you are planning something," said Julia as she looked at Remus. He smiled and nodded guiltily.

"Hey James," said Sirius. "What time is it?"

He didn't wait for James to answer, instead grabbing James' arm and looking at the time.

"Time for you to get your own watch Black," said James as he yanked his arm away. Sirius lunged back for his arm and grabbed it, holding James' wrist close to his face.

"Three. . . two. . . one. . . zero. Let's go!" Sirius jumped up from his seat and threw open the compartment door. He was followed by James, Remus, and Peter. The four boys tipped their heads in unison as if they were listening for something. The girls sat in the compartment, also listening. At first, it started as a dull chant but eventually it turned into a loud roar.

"Gryffindor rules! Gryffindor is the best! Sirius Black is sexy! Gryffindor rocks! Gryffindor rules! Sirius Black is a hot piece of man flesh! Bow down to Gryffindor! Gryffindor rules! James Potter is sexy! But not as sexy as Sirius! Gryffindor rules. . . ."

Apparently, Sirius had work a spell over every compartment but the one they were currently in. The passengers of each compartment started chanting various phrases in unison at exactly 1:00 P.M.

"I was just saying how I. . . do not. . . um. . . I don't like the color purple."

Sirius and James gave Lily a strange look.

"Uh, hmmm," said Sirius, still looking at Lily with an odd expression. "Well, ah, I don't either."

James didn't say anything, instead sitting next to Remus since Julia was in his former seat.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. Towards the end, Sirius was once again dragged off away by Gwen. A few people stopped by the compartment to say hi, including Mundungus Fletcher, the last member of the Marauder's dorm. Fletch, as they all called him, had dark brown hair and eyes to boot. He was the most studious out of the five boys and chose not to partake in their little "adventures." The four girls all showed sympathy for Fletch. Having to live with those four since first year was worth anyone's pity.

About a half and hour before the train arrived at school, Sirius re-entered the compartment, his mood of excitement and humor gone.

"Are you and Gwen fighting again?" asked James as Sirius sat across from him. James really didn't need Sirius to answer to know the truth. Ninety- nine percent of the time, Sirius was an extremely happy person, but if you made him angry, there would definitely be hell to pay. Angry Sirius was not like by many people.

"She's mad at me because I don't spend enough time with her," said Sirius in a slightly mocking tone. "She says she's a woman with needs, and that I'd rather go off and pull stupid pranks with my stupid friends instead of fulfilling her needs. For Merlin's sake, I'm only sixteen! She's bloody fifteen! What kind of needs do bloody fifteen-year-olds have?"

Sirius looked around to the four girls in the compartment, obviously expecting them to answer his question. They all looked at each other but no one spoke.

"Did you two break-up?" asked Remus.

"No," said Sirius, shaking his head. "We fight all that time. You'd think we'd have broken up by now."

The Sorting Hat finished its song and the students politely clapped. McGonagall began calling up first years one by one and the hat each sorted them into their houses. The guys and girls were all sitting at the middle of the table, talking with other members of the house.

"So how was your summer Sirius?" asked Fletch as he reached for a flask of pumpkin juice.

"It was okay I guess," said Sirius. "It was just my sister and me most of the time. Ministry has been really busy lately."

Sirius had a younger sister, Cassie, who was a second year.

"Yeah, my dad worked tons of over time in the last few months," said James. His dad was an auror along with Mr. Black. "I guess there have been some problems with dark magic lately. He doesn't really talk about it much."

"What do you mean 'problems with dark magic'?" asked Lily as she looked back and fourth between Sirius and James who were sitting across from her and Julia. Remus was on the other side of Sirius and Fletch was on the other side of James. Peter was sitting next to Chloe. Rachel was between Chloe and Julia.

"There has been a small group of dark wizards joining forces here in the U.K. What was their leader's name James?" asked Sirius. "Vul- something?"

"Voldemort?" asked Julia. "I've heard about him. Wanted for crimes against muggles or something. I heard he was causing tons of problems for the Ministry."

"More than just crimes against muggles," said Fletch. "My dad said that he's done a lot more but the Ministry is covering it all up. They don't want to get people too alarmed."

"I don't see what's wrong with warning people," said Chloe. The other teens nodded in agreement. There was a lingering silence for a few moments before Sirius took it upon himself to break it up.

"HI CASSIOPEIA!" shouted Sirius loudly as he waved wildly at his little sister. She, in turn, blushed at the sound of her real name. Everyone called her Cassie but Sirius, who thought it was amusing to embarrass his sister and share that fact that their mother was obsessed with astronomy. Mrs. Black worked at the Ministry as an assistant to the Minister of Magic.

"Sirius, leave your sister alone," said Lily as she swatted him from across the table. "Poor girl must have mental problems from being your sister."

"You think so?" asked Sirius thoughtfully. He tapped his jaw in thought and then abruptly stood up. "CASSIO-PEI-A! Are you going loony from being my sister?"

Cassie shot Sirius a dark look before turning back to her friends.

"She loves me," said Sirius as he turned back to Lily, flashing her a charming smile in the process. "Speaking of people who love me. . . James, are you going to have to deduct points from yourself since your prefect?"

"No, but he had better award us for brilliant pranks against the Slytherins," said Remus as he reached behind Sirius and clapped James on the shoulder.

"I'll just put it this way. At least we won't have to worry about sneaking around the Gryffindor prefects," James flashed his own charming smile at Lily. She in turn kicked him under the table.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For abusing your privileges," said Lily.

"Kick Sirius, he brought it up."

"Ow! Okay, Lily is officially on the top of the hit list this year," said Sirius as she glared at the redhead.

"Gee thanks Lily. Maybe he'll take a break from terrorizing me," said Chloe as she bounced a cherry tomato off of Sirius' head.

After the feast, the different houses made their way to their common rooms. Lily and James performed their first duty as prefects in showing the new first years the way to the dormitories. Lily threatened Sirius with his life if he tried to scare the new kids and he sulked off to the dorms, using the numerous secret passages that Hogwarts offered.

Once Lily had gotten all the first year girls up into bed, she turned and walked to her dorm, which now said "6th year Girls." She opened the door and took in the sight of the room that had become so familiar to her. But something was different about the room this year. The rest of the girls were down in the common room with the guys so the room was empty. She tried to put her finger on the difference. She started with the bed closest to the door on the left. That was where Rachel slept. Next to Rachel's bed was her own. Julia's trunk was resting in front of the next bed and Chloe's was the next. The last bed. . . wait. . . there were five beds. Lily finally realized the difference in the room. The beds had been moved closer together to accommodate to the extra bed. But why?

Lily made her way down to the common room. The three girls and five guys were all sitting around the enormous fireplace. Sirius and James were talking animatedly about something and the other six were sitting and watching. Lily sat next to Julia on the oversized red couch.

"What up Lils?" asked Julia.

"The house elves must have made a mistake when they were arranging furniture in the dorms," said Lily.

"What do you mean?"

"We have five beds in our room," said Lily, puzzlement evident on her face.

"Hmm," said Rachel. "That is strange."

"Maybe you looked in the wrong dorm," suggested Remus.

"That's what I thought," continued Lily, "but my stuff was in there and so was everyone else's."

"That can only mean one thing," said Sirius after thinking about it for a moment.